Lower School STEM Teacher Shannon LoRusso is helping medical personnel by using the school’s 3D printer to make Montana Masks and Face Shields for hospital use. Before Admiral Farragut Academy closed due to coronavirus, she took the 3D printer from the Lower School STEM Lab home and the school provided her materials such as the computer and rolls of PLA filament.

Through research, LoRusso found a website called makethemasks.com that was providing design files to create a 3D printable high-efficiency filtration mask called a Montana Mask, free for public use. The key benefit is that the mask itself can be sanitized and reused. Although not approved by the FDA or NIOSH, the mask has been rigorously tested, and once hospitals receive the 3D printed pieces, they can conserve resources by using 2.5” squares cut from surgical masks; one n95 surgical mask will yield six filters with surgical protection.

LoRusso has also found a way to make face shields through budmen.com. The shields consist of a visor 3D printed with PLA filament, and a hand-cut clear polythene shield that the hospital or recipient would then provide. The shield can be replaced if hospitals do not want to sterilize the shields daily.

She and her daughter, Farragut 8th-grader Julia, are able to get about 2-3 masks done a day. It takes 4 hours just to get one set done. LoRusso has had several people ask her for them so she may just hand them out to hospital staff as they ask for them. “When my mom and her cousin, who is a nurse, started talking about the lack of masks it made me curious about how I can help,” Julia said. “My mom showed me the website about making masks for the hospitals and I thought it was a great idea!”